Shuuji and Akira
by peroxidepest17
Summary: Shuuji is selfish, and Akira is popular. Sort of.


**Title:** Shuuji and Akira  
**Universe: ** Nobuta wo Produce  
**Theme/Topic:** N/A  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Character/Pairing/s:** could be construed as AkiraxShuuji. Could be gen.  
**Warnings/Spoilers:** Spoilers for the end of the series.  
**Word Count:** 1,105  
**Summary:** Shuuji is selfish, and Akira is popular. Sort of.  
**Dedication:** Nicole and Ann, since I know they love this series more than anyone else on this earth. **  
A/N: **Admittedly most of this is recycled from the unfinished fic I found from some months back, but not all of it is. You can kind of tell though, it feels very patchworked when you read it. But it was so close to being done, I thought I ought to just go ahead and end it, whether the results were good or not.  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine, though I wish constantly.  
**Distribution:** Just lemme know.

* * *

It is about halfway through their first semester at their new school when Akira gets a love letter. It's in his shoe locker, tucked neatly between his sneakers. 

It's pink.

"Oh my god!" Akira says in English when he sees it, and puts his hands on his head.

Shuuji does not react the same way; instead he reaches into Akira's locker and takes the letter out. There are heart-shaped stickers on it and it smells vaguely of perfume. "Who do you suppose it's from?" Shuuji asks, before he tries to give it back to Akira.

"I don't know," Akira responds, again in English. His hands are still on his head.

Shuuji thinks about it for a moment, then realizes that he doesn't know either. He doesn't even have the slightest clue, actually. "Read it," he tells Akira. "Someone likes you."

"Roger!" Akira replies, and salutes before taking it and sniffing it. He promptly sneezes.

Shuuji finishes putting on his shoes while Akira reads. He wonders which girl it is who likes Akira; the only thing he is sure about is that she would have to be someone from their class, because outside of class Shuuji and Akira only really talk to one another. Their classmates are even beginning to refer to them as one entity.

Shuuji eyes Akira as he waits for him to finish reading and notices that his friend is focused on the letter rather intently. There is a furrow in his brow that belies his confusion, and he rubs at his nose in-between sentences because the perfume is making it itch. All in all, he looks just as clueless about the whole thing as Shuuji is.

When he realizes this something else suddenly occurs to Shuuji as well; he thinks that maybe he is being overly selfish. Since they've come here no one else has gotten a chance to really get to know Akira.

Because Akira is always with Shuuji and no one else, and it only occurs to Shuuji now that maybe he is keeping the other boy from meeting new people and having new experiences, from getting dozens of love letters from girls instead of just one.

Shuuji can't help it though; this place is still new and doesn't feel like home. Akira makes it better—more familiar— and so if Shuuji wants to stay close he can't really be blamed, can he?

Maybe. But then again, maybe not.

The more he thinks about it the more he finds himself leaning towards maybe not, because there Akira is, reading a love letter, and neither of them can even begin to guess who it's from. Because Akira is always with Shuuji and the two of them never really try to talk to anyone else. They'd never even noticed that there was a girl in their class who had started to like Akira in the first place.

Akira is a friendly person. He should probably have a lot of friends to hang out with, not just one. And he is energetic and cheerful and good looking from most angles, so he should probably have dozens of love letters in his shoe locker as well.

"It's from Minami-san," Akira announces, after he is done reading the letter.

"Oh," Shuuji says, and tries to remember which one Minami-san is.

"I helped her carry science supplies one day," Akira recalls. "She didn't say anything the entire time and walked three steps behind me the whole way. It made me think that I smelled bad."

When he hears that Shuuji remembers as well; that was the day Akira took his deodorant during lunch and rubbed it all over his body, even his neck and arms and cheeks. He'd smelled spicy for the rest of the afternoon.

"I told you that you didn't smell," Shuuji feels the need to say. "She was just shy."

Akira looks thoughtful. "Not anymore." He waves the letter a little, sneezes again, and then takes his shoes out of his locker.

Shuuji blinks. "What did she say?"

"That she likes me."

Clearly. Shuuji sighs and waits for Akira to put on his shoes. "What else?" He knows he probably shouldn't be so pushy, but he's curious.

"That's all," Akira tells him, and finishes tying his laces. He stands. Stretches. "Let's go."

Shuuji blinks. "That's all? Really?"

Akira nods. "She says she just wanted to let me know, even if I only like Shuuji." He flashes Shuuji a thumbs up.

Shuuji chokes. "She said _what_?"

Akira holds out the letter and points to a section near the end. He reads it out loud. "It says 'Because I know that Akira-kun only likes Shuuji-kun.' See? Right there."

Shuuji shushes him. "Not so loud!" he hisses. Then he looks around to make sure no one overheard. That sort of thing could give people the wrong idea, after all.

Luckily no one is there and Shuuji breathes a small sigh of relief. Then, carefully, "How are you going to respond?"

Akira looks thoughtful as he tucks the letter into the pocket of his shoulder bag. "I'll thank her for the letter tomorrow," he decides after a moment. Then, he grins. "But I will tell her she's right, right now Akira-kun only likes Shuuji-kun."

Shuuji sputters. "Oi, don't go around saying weird things like that to people!" he protests, and he feels his cheeks go pink despite himself.

Akira snickers at his friend's discomfort; Shuuji wishes the idiot wouldn't tease him like that.

"Is it okay just to leave it at that?" he asks, after a moment.

Akira nods. "Right now just being Akira and Shuuji is enough." Pause. "Akira and Shuuji and Nobuta on the phone," he corrects.

Shuuji doesn't know why he is so relieved to hear that. He thinks that perhaps it is because he is being selfish and hording his friend all to himself again. He wishes he wasn't like that, but for now, all he can say is, "Aa."

Maybe one day he'll be brave enough to stop clinging like this, but either way, he's glad that that moment isn't now—not yet.

Akira in the meantime, is thinking about far more important things. "Shuuji-who-I-like-so much," he sing-songs, and pokes Shuuji in the cheek, "let's go get hamburgers on the way back, ne? Buy me a double!"

"Oi," Shuuji protests, by rote. He swats at Akira's hand away from his face and promptly forgets everything deep and profound that he'd been thinking about just now when Akira decides to add a large fry and a chocolate milkshake to his order. "Idiot, buy your own!"

Akira just cackles and skips out the door.

**END**


End file.
